Schools reluctant to push Obamacare - Who will write new for-profit college regulations? - First in Morning Education: Insiders not very happy

SCHOOLS RELUCTANT TO PUSH OBAMACARE -- One exception: the Los Angeles United School District, which is training training thousands of students as ambassadors for the health care law. Pro’s Kyle Cheney has the story: "Supporters of the health law see back-to-school season as a natural time for Obamacare outreach, a chance to find young families who could benefit from new health coverage options. But weeks before the school bells start ringing in parts of the country, there’s no concerted effort to reach parents at the schoolhouse door. ...

“Schools already reach out to students and families for two other health entitlements: Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. And it’s maddeningly easy, the advocates contend, to slip Obamacare insurance enrollment information into the packets that parents receive at the start of the school year.” The full story: http://politi.co/1aYqExN

WHO WILL WRITE NEW FOR-PROFIT COLLEGE REGULATIONS? — Names of the stakeholders chosen to rewrite the controversial “gainful employment” regulation beginning in September are starting to slip out. Some are prominent critics of the sector, indicating the Obama administration isn’t backing off from tightening regulations on vocational programs despite a court challenge to its last attempt. Among the names Morning Education has heard as negotiators or alternates: Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities; Ted Daywalt, CEO and president of VetJobs, Inc.; Rory O’Sullivan, policy director for Young Invincibles; Margaret Reiter, a consumer attorney; and an as-yet-unnamed representative from the Kentucky attorney general’s office, which has led a 30-state investigation into for-profit colleges.

HAPPY THURSDAY MORNING AND HAPPY AUGUST. And welcome to Morning Education, where my plans for D.C.’s dog days include trying every flavor of artisanal Popsicle the city has to offer. We know education news won’t necessarily slow down when Congress goes home Friday, so keep sending news tips, gossip, reactions and more to lnelson@politico.com and @ libbyanelson. Follow us at @ Morning_Edu and @ POLITICOPro. Check the end of the email for contact information for the rest of the team.

FIRST IN MORNING EDUCATION: INSIDERS NOT VERY HAPPY— Whiteboard Advisors’ monthly look at the views of its “insiders” on a range of education issues is out today -- and it’s a cold blast of negativity from current and former Hill and Education Department staff, state education officials and think tankers. Among the findings: Low marks for both Congress and the Obama administration. Deep pessimism that one of the two Common Core assessment consortia, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, can get it together. Harsh words for the Student Success Act. On the other hand, a reversal of fortune: 62 percent say the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is on the right track -- versus just 26 percent who said the same in March.

--What they’re saying: The best part of these monthly surveys are often the juicy anonymous quotes, and this month the respondents are pulling no punches. The full survey: http://bit.ly/11vOXQW

STUDENT LOAN BILL TO OBAMA — The bill sailed through the House with little of the angst that Senate Democrats showed on tying student loan interest rates to the market. The final vote was 392 to 31. POLITICO Pro’s story: http://politi.co/133Xnwh

INBLOOM OFF THE ROSE? -- Another state has pulled out of using the Gates Foundation’s $100 million technology service project, inBloom. The withdrawal further shrinks the project after other states pulled out in part because of concern about protecting students’ privacy. Guilford County, N.C. told POLITICO on Wednesday that the state decided to stop using the service, which is designed to hold information about students including names, socioeconomic status, test scores, disabilities, discipline records and more in one place, and ideally, help in customizing students’ education.

Guilford schools’ departure doesn’t put the project in any kind of jeopardy, inBloom said, although Louisiana withdrew in April and other states once affiliated with the project no longer are. That leaves New York, two Illinois districts and one Colorado district as firm participants for now; Massachusetts is on the fence. At first inBloom will be free, but by 2015 states and districts using it will be charged $2 to $5 per student for the service.

THE HILL’S MOST BEAUTIFUL EDU-PEOPLE — From the newspaper’s annual “50 Most Beautiful” list, at least two with direct ties to education: the Education Department’s Paul Kendrick http://bit.ly/133XYhx and White House chef Sam Kass, executive director of Let’s Move! http://bit.ly/133Y34Y

MEANWHILE, IN MICHIGAN -- Hearings continued on the Common Core but took an abrupt detour when the Hillsdale College president, a witness, referred to minorities as “dark ones.” MLive.com: “The testimony … capped what had been a calmer hearing than the first hearing earlier in July, when legislators squabbled with State Superintendent Mike Flanagan and Michael Cohen, president of Achieve Inc., the non-profit group which helped lead the development of the standards.” The full story: http://bit.ly/133YU5y

STEP FORWARD FOR LONG-OVERDUE WIA — Education Pro’s Libby A. Nelson: “The Senate took a step toward overhauling job training and vocational education Wednesday, with a rare bipartisan committee vote for a bill to streamline federal job training and other vocational programs -- but the bill’s future is uncertain. ... The 1998 law provides money for a tangle of job training and rehabilitation programs overseen by both the Education and Labor departments. The act’s reach stretches from vocational education at community and technical colleges to basic literacy classes for adults and programs for students with disabilities and high school dropouts.” The full story: http://politi.co/133YgoN

EDUCATION PR ACQUISITIONS — Collaborative Communications Group has acquired Connecticut-based Exemplar Strategic Communications, becoming the nation’s largest communications and strategic consulting firm focused on K-12 education. Clients of Exemplar, whose managing partner Patrick Riccards will join Collaborative as a partner, included the Education Department, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the National Governors’ Association. Collaborative’s clients include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Council of Chief State School Officers, Teach for America and many more.

TODAY IN CONGRESS -- House Veterans Affairs Committee markup of two bills related to veterans’ education and the G.I. Bill, 10 a.m.: http://veterans.house.gov

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About The Author : Libby A. Nelson

Libby A. Nelson is an education reporter for POLITICO Pro and the author of Morning Education. Before joining POLITICO, she was a reporter at Inside Higher Ed, where she covered federal higher education policy – including Congress, the Education Department and higher education issues in the 2012 campaign -- and religious colleges. She got her start as an education reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education, where she interned for nine months in 2009-10 and reported on federal policy, including sweeping student loan legislation included in the health care overhaul.

A 2009 graduate of Northwestern University, Nelson also interned on the metro desks of The New York Times, the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times) and the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune. Her first real job in journalism was in Scranton, Pa., where she worked as a regional reporter for the Times-Tribune. She grew up in suburban Kansas City and speaks fluent French.